The present specification relates to a method of manufacturing a plurality of packaged semiconductor devices. The present specification also relates to a plurality of packaged semiconductor devices made according to the method.
Because the packages of semiconductor devices are getting smaller and smaller, testing on individual products becomes ever more difficult. The testing of the products requires good stability and rigidity, as the probe needles used in the test are required to stay in good contact with the leads. Furthermore, co-planarity is important and the fact that each products should be handled one at a time makes individual test cost inefficient.
Besides the issues with testing, also the package thickness is of concern with current molding techniques. The molding of thin mold-caps has to be performed with expensive molding equipment (such as compression molding equipment). This process has large tolerances in terms of the thickness of the encapsulant. Because of this, testing on individual products as mentioned above can risk causing package cracks.